District News Roundup

The secondary school system of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Philadelphia is "at risk'' due to rapidly declining enrollments and a
deteriorating financial situation, and no plan currently is in place to
rescue the schools, a report issued by the archdiocese this month
concludes.

The long-range planning report, developed for the archdiocese by the
management-consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand, calls for possible
school closings, renewed efforts to find funding for the schools, and
the eventual decentralization of the now highly centralized system.

The report recommends the closing of six of the archdiocesan high
schools--St. James, Archbishop Kennedy, Bishop Kenrick, Little Flower,
Northeast Catholic, and West Catholic. It also calls for four other
schools--Bishop Conwell, Bishop Egan, St. Maria Goretti, and St. John
Neumann--to merge into two coeducational programs.

The archdiocesan secondary schools are currently more than $10
million in debt, officials say, and a number of schools are running at
less than half their capacity.

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua told a news conference this month
that "no decision about the future of any school has been made.'' He
pledged that such decisions would be made only after consultation with
pastors, parents, principals, and others in the community.

The report also calls for the archdiocese to begin phasing in open
enrollment in the high schools beginning next fall, and to begin
efforts to make each school in the system financially and academically
independent.

A federal appellate court has ruled that a California school
district erred in unilaterally expelling a student who was later found
to be disabled.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit said last month that officials in the Hacienda La Puente
Unified School District should have provided a special-education
hearing for the student before expelling him.

The boy, a 7th grader with a long history of disciplinary and
academic problems, had been expelled from school for threatening
another student with a starter's pistol.

An independent hearing officer, in a hearing held after the
incident, determined that the boy was emotionally disturbed and ordered
the district to pay the parents' legal fees and to reinstate the boy.
But school officials argued that the boy was not entitled to that
hearing because he had not previously been determined to be
disabled.

A lower federal court upheld the hearing officer.

Eliot Wigginton, the founder of the Foxfire literary magazine and
education program, resigned his teaching post at the University of
Georgia in Athens Oct. 6, in the wake of further allegations that he
has molested children.

Mr. Wigginton was indicted in Rabun County, Ga., last month on
charges that he undressed and fondled a 4th-grade boy during an
overnight trip to a Foxfire event.

This month, the prosecution filed a motion to introduce evidence of
previous incidents that allegedly took place between 1969 and 1982.
These allegations involve eight males between the ages of 14 and 19 who
each say that Mr. Wigginton gave them drugs or alcohol and molested
them, according to Jay McCollum, the chief assistant district attorney
for Rabun County.

Seven of the males were students of Mr. Wigginton at the time and
one was a part-time employee of the Foxfire program, Mr. McCollum
said.

A hearing to determine whether the additional allegations are
admissible as evidence in Mr. Wigginton's trial is scheduled for Oct.
22.

Mr. Wigginton has denied all of the charges, said his lawyer, Bruce
Maloy.

Mr. Wigginton, who was suspended by the university when it learned
in August that an indictment was forthcoming, said in his resignation
letter that he needed to "devote considerable time and effort in
responding to the charges that have been brought against me.''

Seven middle school boys have been recommended for expulsion from
the Houston Independent School District and a teacher has been charged
by police with failure to report child abuse after two alleged sexual
assaults by the boys on a 13-year-old female special-education
student.

The boys, who are 13 to 15 years old, will be removed from E.O.
Smith Middle School for the remainder of the semester if their
recommended expulsions are approved. Expulsion for the semester is the
most severe punishment the district can impose, said Vernell Jessie,
the director of media relations for the district.

The cases of six of the boys have been referred to the Harris County
juvenile-probation department, and one boy is being treated as a
witness, said John Leggio, a Houston police spokesman.

Police officials said two assaults involving the same girl took
place Sept. 29. In the first incident, seven of the boys allegedly held
the girl down and molested her in a boys' restroom at the school, Mr.
Leggio said.

It is that incident for which a physical-education teacher, Jerald
Steven Macklin, is charged with failure to report child abuse.

The charge against Mr. Macklin, who has been with the district since
August, is a misdemeanor. He was free last week on a $1,000 bond.

Ms. Jessie said Mr. Macklin has been reassigned to a nonschool
setting pending the outcome of the district's investigation, which was
expected last week.

In the second incident, Mr. Leggio said, the girl was assaulted
again in a school stairwell by two of the same seven boys who allegedly
participated in the first attack.

Ms. Jessie said an additional security guard or police officer will
patrol the school as a result of the incidents.

An Eau Claire, Wis., principal has resigned and three assistant
principals have been reprimanded following their involvement in
falsifying the returns in a high school homecoming-queen election.

Superintendent Lee Hansen told a news conference this month that the
four administrators altered a number of ballots in the election to deny
April Schuldt, a pregnant senior at Memorial High School, the
title.

Mr. Hansen said that the administrators changed enough votes to
nullify Ms. Schuldt's win, burned some ballots, named the runner-up as
the homecoming queen, and misrepresented their actions to students,
parents, the media, and the deputy superintendent.

During a closed school board meeting last week, Principal Charles
Zielin offered his immediate resignation. In addition, the board
suspended Assistant Principal Charlene Gearing for 15 days, extended
her probationary contract, and froze her pay for one year at the
current level. She, along with the two other assistant principals will
receive letters of reprimand.

"They taught the student body at Memorial a terrible lesson in civic
responsibility,'' said Mr. Hansen of the four school officials.

"On behalf of the board of education and the total administrative
staff, I can only express my deepest regrets and offer my most sincere
apology,'' he added.

The superintendent of the Mobile, Ala., schools has been suspended
for 90 days while the school board considers whether to fire him from
the job he has held just 14 months.

The board suspended Doug Magann after the defeat of a local school
property-tax referendum at the polls last month. Mr. Magann had opposed
the measure. After its defeat, the state senator who introduced the
legislation called for Mr. Magann's resignation for not supporting the
action.

The board of the state's largest district voted 3 to 1 with one
abstention to suspend the superintendent.

Among the list of charges against Mr. Magann are inappropriate use
of funds, insubordination, and general mismanagement of the school
system.

Mr. Magann, who has not been formally accused by the board of any
wrongdoing, is seeking a retraction of allegedly defamatory statements
made by board members, as well as monetary compensation.

The mother of a 10-year-old boy who claims that her son made it to
5th grade in the Santa Ana, Calif., schools without being able to read
or write has filed a lawsuit seeking to close down the boy's elementary
school.

Lourdes Gutierrez charges in her state lawsuit that teachers of the
Glenn Martin Elementary School failed to fulfill their obligation to
teach her son, Roberto. In her suit, she asks that the court order the
school closed and that the money used to operate it be given to
students in the form of education vouchers to pay for private school
education.

The suit alleges Roberto's homework was never looked at or graded
and that teachers never showed the boy's homework to Ms. Gutierrez as
proof of his inability to read and write.

The case was filed in Orange County Superior Court as a class action
because Ms. Gutierrez's lawyer believes that other students of the
elementary school might also be affected.

District officials said it is highly unlikely that a student who
cannot read or write would be promoted to the 5th grade without
extensive help and supervision.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.